Hello, I’m Sandra, and I work as a community chef for NHS greater Glasgow and Clyde. And
today we are going to be making a very simple tomato and vegetable sauce which you can find
in the fun first food booklet so you can find the recipe in there. Very, very simple, not
many ingredients. All you need is a tin of chopped tomatoes, some grated cheese, half
a courgette, a small onion, half a red pepper, around a table spoonful of vegetable oil and
some pasta.
Okay, so it’s really important that we start off just by washing our hands, making sure
that our table is nice and clean, our utensils are clean and even your baby’s high chair,
give that a little wipe. And your babies hands as well so they’re nice and clean before
they start eating.
So, we’re just going to start off with our small onion, and we’re just going to peel
this and finally chop it. So start off by just taking the bottom off, cut the onion
in half, and then we can just peel the skin back. And we will finally dice this, again
we just want some texture in the meal, because it’s really important that we add some lumps
and bumps in. So your baby gets used to what food tastes like In their mouth and obviously
food has texture in it, so it’s important that you include that in your meals. You don’t
need to puree anything.
Okay, and then we’re just going to add a tablespoon of oil into the pot. Okay by nine
to ten months it’s really important that your baby gets used to the lumps and bumps
and the different textures of foods. So as they get to that age you really want to be
increasing the texture within the foods. That means they get used to the family friendly
meals. And it’s also really good for their speech as well. It’s good for their speech
development to get the texture in. So, I’m just going to add this into the oil. Okay,
so I’m just going to put my cooker on and we will soften the onion in the oil.
Okay, so were just going to take our red pepper; and were just going to half this. We only
need half a red pepper. You could use the rest for a finger food if you slice it up.
I’ll just put that half to one side, then we’re just going to take this stuff out
the pulp and the seeds out with a spoon. Okay, then I’m just going to finally chop the
pepper as well, we’ll start of just by slicing it. Okay so that would be an ideal finger
food, you could use that as a finger food, and you can chop it up and out it in the sauce.
Okay so there we have our chopped peppers, I’m just going to add that into the pot.
Okay so just stir that in with the diced onions. Okay, so next we’re going to be adding in
half a courgette. So, again just make sure you give your vegetables a good scrub before
you use them. I’ve already washed the pepper and we’ve washed the courgette. Make sure
everything is nice and clean, I’m just going to half the courgette. And then we will half
this again. So, I’m just going to slice it finally. With the rest, you could cut that
into fingers and that could be a finger food for your baby. So, with this we’re going
to put it into the pot, with the pepper and with the onion. We’re just going to cook
this on a low heat for five minutes. So just make sure you stir the pot occasionally to
stop it sticking to the sides. Okay so next we’re going to be adding in a tin of chopped
tomatoes. So, this makes around 8 portions, which you can put in your freezer as well.
We’ll just give that a stir. So I’m just going to put a lid on that and we’re just
going to let that cook for 15 minutes just on a low simmer.
Okay so I’m just going to take a ladle out of the pot and put onto a baby plate. Okay,
so as you can we have a lovely texture here so this is perfect for a baby around ten months.
You’ve got your chopped or finely sliced up vegetables here, you’ve got your texture,
you’ve got some lovely colours. If your baby was maybe younger, or just weren’t
ready for this type of texture yet you could just mash that down with a fork.
Okay, so here we have our simple tomato and vegetable sauce all plated up and we’re
going to serve it with some pasta. So, today I’m using some whole-wheat spaghetti. So
were going to serve that up, I’m going to boil that in some water. You don’t want
to be using whole-wheat all the time but you can use it now and again. You can use plain
spaghetti, you can use macaroni which I’ve got here, you can use penne pasta. So really
whatever you’ve got in your store cupboard is ideal to use.
Okay, so I’m just going to place the pasta into boiling water, were just going to cook
it, if you follow the packs instructions, its round about ten to twelve minutes for
this one. Okay, so that’s just came off the boil. We’re just going to see whether
that’s ready or not, I’m just going to use a fork, just to see if it breaks up easily.
As you can see its breaking up really easily. So that means its cooked right through.
So, we will just drain this now and get it ready to serve with our sauce. Okay, so I’ve
drained my pasta, I’m just going to add this to a plate. Okay, so texture wise this
might be a bit long for your baby so I’m just going to use a table knife and just cut
that up. So depending what stage you feel your baby is at, you can cut it up as much
as you want. Okay, so I feel that is the ideal texture for our baby who is going to be eating
this today, who is around ten months old. So, I’m just going to add in the sauce,
and I’m just going to add in a tablespoonful of grated cheese on top. Look at that, Beautiful!
We have used cheddar cheese, but you can use any type of hard cheese just as long as it
is pasteurised.
Okay, so if you want you can mix this together, and that will be ready to serve your baby.
So that looks a fantastic dish to serve for our baby. Our baby is around about ten months
old. So, this is a great texture for them. We have some chopped and sliced vegetables
in there, we have still some texture within the pasta.
Okay so here we have some suggestions of some fingers foods that you could have with your
pasta and tomato and vegetable sauce. So we have some broccoli here, which we’ve bought
frozen you just cook it in some hot water till it’s nice and soft. That’s an ideal
finger food. And we also have some cooked beetroot here which is a great finger food,
but you just need to make sure it not in any vinegar. So, you get two different types of
cooked beetroot just make sure it the one without vinegar. Okay we’ve also got some
cheese, you can either have it as something they can hold, a finger food they can hold
in their hand. Or you could grate it and they could just pick that up. And then we have
our peas here which you could add into this dish and you just want to mash them with a
fork just to break that round shape. So you can just slightly mash them up a little.
So, the recipe in the book is for 8 portions. This is one of our portions from the booklet.
And this would probably be a portion size for a baby around ten months onwards. You
might want to serve it as we said with some finger foods. But obviously you wouldn’t
be giving all of these finger foods so you might want to just have a little bit of broccoli,
it’s nice and well-cooked so we will put that on the plate here, a little bit if beetroot
with no vinegar, so put that there. Weaning can be a messy business, so a lot of this
might end up on your floor. Especially with things like beetroot as well if you’re giving
that into your babies hand you might just want to make sure they’ve got maybe older
clothes on, not there best of gear on. And a bib, and maybe just have some paper tissues
or a towel ready to just clean up round about. So they don’t have to have this with the
meal they can have it with the meal or you can spread it throughout the day, and they
can try all these different textures, colours, different flavours of food and just get them
used to the different foods that’s out there.
Okay, so we have some leftover tomato and vegetable sauce here. The recipe was for 8
portions, we have around 7 portions left. So I’m just going to show you how you can
add some different ingredients in just to jazz it up a little. So, I’ve got some Quorn
mince here, which is a fantastic vegetarian alternative. It’s got lots of protein in
it, so there’s about 200 grams here of Quorn mince. And I’m just going to add that in
here with the tomato sauce. Okay so, I’m just going to give this a good stir. And I’m
going to cook it as per the packs instructions. Which is just to cook it out in the sauce
for around ten minutes. Now, it might go a little dry so, if it does you can just add
a little bit of water in. So, I’m just going to add in a little bit of water, now I’m
adding in water but you could equally use some full fat cow’s milk that would give
it some extra nutrients, or some dairy free milk as well. I’m just going to give that
a little bit of a stir.
Okay, so I’m just going to put a serving out of this pot onto a little plate. If you
remember we started off with seven servings, and because we’ve added in the Quorn mince
we now have ten servings. Okay, so we have quite a lot of meals here. Which is great
you can just put that in the freezer. So you can just get yourself a little tub, and you
can freeze it into portions and put it in the freezer. That just means on busier days
when you don’t have time to cook you’ve already got something made in the freezer
and you can just take that out and reheat it.
Okay, so you need quite a few ingredients to get this recipe, and you can get your frozen
bag of Quorn. But actually with the portion it only costs 20 pence per portion. So, that’s
an amazing amount compared to your baby jars that you can get in the supermarket. So for
20 pence you could make something like this. Okay, so as you can see it’s a very, very
simple dish to make. Not that many ingredients; and into this we had our tinned tomatoes,
and our pasta which is your store cupboard ingredients. If you didn’t have any fresh
vegetables to put in you could use frozen or tinned. Look at all the colours that’s
in it. We‘ve got lots of colours, lots of texture in it. Now if I compare that to a
shop bought baby jar which I’ve got one here. As you can see, there’s difference
in texture and the difference in colours. So this one, very little texture, actually
it’s so soft you can just put your spoon right through that. So there’s no texture
in that at all, compared to here, where babies going to learn about the different textures
and you’ve got your nice sliced vegetables so they can see what the foods are supposed
to look like. Okay, so if you think about your cost comparison
as well this one is so much cheaper to make. This one is about four and half times more
expensive than the fresh one. And this one looks so much nicer. Okay, so here is our
finished meal. As you can see all looking ready to serve our baby. Find the recipe in
the booklet. Along with lots of other recipes. So, why don’t you give it a try?